A technology that enables updating of firmware of various network apparatuses such as a printer and a facsimile apparatus (FAX) connected to a network from a terminal by a remote operation is already available.
A conventional updating method is described with reference to FIG. 1, which is a block diagram of a system 500. There, firmware of a network apparatus is updated by a remote operation. As shown in FIG. 1, the system 500 consists of a terminal 501, an apparatus management server 502, a file server 503, and a network apparatus 504, each of which is connected to a network such as a LAN.
The terminal 501 is a terminal that a user directly operates. The apparatus management server 502 is a computer that uploads firmware, etc., to the network apparatus 504 according to a command issued by the terminal 501. The file server 503 is a computer that manages various sets of firmware for the network apparatus 504 as files. The network apparatus 504 is the target apparatus, the firmware of which is to be updated.
First, the apparatus management server 502 downloads the firmware from the file server 503 (S11).
When the command to upload the firmware is issued by the terminal 501 (S12) to the network apparatus 504, the apparatus management server 502 uploads the firmware to the network apparatus 504 (S13), and provides a result report to the terminal 501 (S14). Then, the network apparatus 504 performs an update process at a predetermined timing such that the firmware is updated by the uploaded firmware, and a reset process is carried out to complete installation of the updated firmware (S15).
In this manner, the firmware of the network apparatus 504 is updated by the apparatus management server 502 based on the command from the terminal 501.